The Tragic Murder of Wallace R West
by Centuri Eagle
Summary: Shayera Hol recounts the tale of how the Justice League was forced to take over the world.


**The Death of Wally West **

…**or How to Become a Justice Lord in Three Easy Steps**

- as told by Justice Lord Shayera Hol

Step 1 – Save the Earth.

_When it really mattered, he became the most serious one of us all…_

In those early days, I never foresaw what the end results of smaller events would be. I don't think any us did. Except for Superman. The Man of Steel was virtually sure from the very beginning. He actually warned everyone that when his arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor, declared his intention to run for President that we would all pay dearly. Now, I wish we had listened to him.

So…after Luthor eventually bought his way into to the presidency of the United States he committed a series of crimes and abuses of power that had the public calling for his impeachment and removal from office. To subvert these attempts, he provoked a series of confrontations with the Russians that he thought would unify the nation around him.

Instead, when the clamor for his dismissal grew louder he tricked Russia into staging themselves for battle near Alaska. The American military, per their duty to obey their Commander-in-Chief and protect the homeland, likewise responded. More incursions occurred on several fronts. Soon both militaries were standing-by to destroy each other and the world…once the orders were given. That's when we stepped in.

We went in to the Kremlin to personally plead with the Russian leaders to back down long enough to allow the American Senate enough time to complete the impeachment proceedings against Luthor. Once out of power, Luthor's Vice-president could ratchet down the US military and the potential for World War III would end. That was the plan

As semi-official Ambassador of Peace from Themiscyira -the Nation of the Amazons , Diana out did herself. I had never before (or since) seen her be as passionately eloquent. She used charm, anger, pathos, logic, and common sense, and in the end…it was working. With Superman's additional solemn promise that he and the rest of the Justice League would do whatever it took to repel any attack that Luthor might make, the Russians began to stand down their troops

And right there, the four of us that actually considered themselves Americans talked in a small huddle; John Stewart, my Green Lantern, Clark who I only knew then as Superman, Batman Bruce Wayne, and of course Wally West, Flash. They stood apart from J'onn, Diana and myself while discussing the unique patriotic dilemma of being forced into a position of opposing their own mother country's military. They knew they might have to fight their nation…in order to save their world that they loved. I knew all too well how that burden can play out in one's head.

It was then that the first US missile launches were detected and began to show on the Russian defense directorate tracking board. That is when all discussion proved unnecessary. I, myself, could only point at the blips as they emerged from points on the North American continent.

"John…" I managed to get out, my eyes wide in disbelief.

"ICBM's!" John shouted at Superman. "We can stop this. We catch the war heads before re-entry and…but there are so many! We have to go now!"

"Premier!" Superman shouted to the Russian leader, "Do NOT launch a counterstrike! We will handle this! You have my word. Diana, John, J'onn: Stop those things even if you have to detonate them in space! Let's go!"

With only that, he burst through the ceiling like a red/blue juggernaut and went off to save the world.

J'onn and Diana followed right after him. I flew over to John before he could go. The situation seemed desperate and there was so much to say…and there was no time.

"Be careful," was all I could whisper out, my mouth had gone so dry.

He nodded.

"Don't worry…we'll be back," was all he said. He hesitated a milli-second more, and then he zoomed out the same way as the others.

I didn't know if I would ever see him again…and I briefly worried that I never got to tell him everything I needed to.

Bruce was in Wally's face. With steely eyed concentration, Flash listened EXACTLY to Batman's instructions.

"Flash. You HAVE to get to Luthor." he pointed into Wally's chest emphasizing each word. "Get those missile launch codes from him. Stop him from sending any more of the attack messages…at any and all costs. Go now!"

I never saw Flash alive again. He was gone so fast. He never acknowledged his instructions. He never said goodbye. He never looked back. He accelerated so rapidly this time that there wasn't even a blur. He just disappeared.

There was an immediate crack like thunder from outside the building as he broke the sound barrier.

Bruce turned to me.

"YOU have to go to Andrews Air Base at Washington D.C. and destroy Air Force One. Then go to Anacostia Naval Station and destroy helicopter Marine One. This is vital. Those are the only other two places that Luthor can issue launch codes from. Go!"

"Wait! What about you?" I had to ask.

"Someone needs to stay here and communicate to John and the others where the warheads are coming in from!" Then he said more softly to me, "…and to make sure the Russians don't launch. Now go!"

I have no idea what he would have done if the Russians tried to launch their own missiles, but I remain convinced that the orders would never have made it out of the Kremlin…nor, probably, would have he.

Step 2 – Watch a friend die.

_He was our conscience. Absent him, we went rogue._

I carried out my part and destroyed both presidential aircraft. It was a dangerous task and I was met with fierce resistance but Air Force One and Marine One would never fly again.

That day John Stewart, Superman, Wonder Woman, and J'onn J'onzz somehow managed to destroy 120 in-flight nuclear missiles before they managed to impact…and kill millions. The Russians never fired back. World annihilation was averted.

I rendezvoused with them in D.C. near the Congressional Capitol Building not far from the White House. I was never so glad to see them. I was never so proud of them. They were nearly spent, each of them, but we all began to immediately enjoy our victory over death.

"We got them all!" John exclaimed as he landed on the spacious grass. "We got every last one! It was close. Real close. But not one got through. Not one" He was exhausted, and yet smiling. It was like a one million ton burden had been lifted off of his shoulders.

"Yes, you did it!" I was giddy with relief too. I held his hands and before I knew it we were in an embrace. I was so overcome I was slightly crying and laughing at the same time. Then I remembered…

"I almost never got the chance to tell you, John. I…" I began, but he cut me off.

"I know…me too. I know...but it's okay," he said without any of the pretense or stiffness I had known in him since our first meeting. The near-end of the world had broken all that down…for both of us. "We have time now, I should have told you so long ago that I think…"

He looked around.

"Where's the kid? Where's Flash?

"He stopped Luthor…" Clark declared with a smile. "There were no more launches after the first strike wave blasted off. The Russians have thanked us, and Batman is on his way back here."

"Flash? Flash? Come in please," Diana was sounding protectively worried as she tapped on her ear microphone. "He's not answering. We need to find him now." I felt a knot in my stomach, but grabbed my Mace. John enshrouded himself in green. They all got ready to go and save our youngest member.

But it was all too late. His head was already on the chopping block.

Once again, I was the first one to see it. I pointed at the giant jumbo-tron tv screen that televised internal governmental ceremonies to the pedestrian crowds on the Capitol lawn. The display changed to a broadcast from the White House.

Wally, having been hobbled by a power disrupting energy beam of Luthor's design, was being held up by two Marine guards. I watched as they brought him before Lex Luthor who despite standing there in executive business suit and tie, was also carrying an ordinary looking pump action shotgun weapon in his hands.

"Flash," Luthor said, sounding official, but also erratic and annoyed. "I find you guilty of clear and undisputable treason against your country, the United States of America…and the office of its presidency as represented by ME, Lex Luthor. Do you have any last words?"

Flash was clearly at the point of complete exhaustion. Any energy he used to move against the power disruptor was taken out of him in equal and slightly higher measure, but he resisted to the last…even though his fate was sealed.

"Yes…as a matter of fact…I do, Lex," he managed to grunt out with the strength of a true hero.

No one would ever forget what he would say next and as his last words…

"M…My name…my real name is Wallace…Rudolf…West…" he stressed and strained for each syllable. "Mem…ber…of the…Justice League. Fu..fu..fuck YOU, Lex Luthor." He then just barely managed to weakly give Luthor the finger with his right hand before lying limp in submission to the power drain on him.

Luthor paused for a second to consider this. His lips ruthlessly tightened into a deranged frown. He took a deep breath and then methodically inserted a shotgun shell engraved with a lightning bolt upon it, representing Flash, into the breech of the shotgun. He then viciously racked the pump slide.

"Well Flash," Luthor chuckled slightly maniacally. "You, Superman and the rest of the Justice League have all finally committed unpardonable sins with which I can now legally exact capital punishment upon. THAT is the law of the land, which I am still president of. So…with the authority invested in me by the people of the United States of America: I, Lex Luthor, find you, Wallace West guilty of high treason. You are a traitor. The penalty for that…is death. Goodbye Flash."

John turned my head away at the last moment. I heard the blast through the immense speakers.

I heard Clark shout "NOOOO!", he took a slight reflexive step forward, but then fell to his knees on the ground.

Diana pleaded, "Hera, please, no!"

J'onn gave off a wave of anguish.

John held me tightly and would not let me see the screen, as he repeated softly, "Don't look. Don't look. It's okay."

I will forever be grateful for that. I would not be able to sleep soundly in his arms if I had seen it happen…

Step 3 – Become a Justice Lord.

_He would not have liked what we became, but, in the end, his death gave us no choice…_

Clark was still on his knees pummeling the ground with his fists, causing buildings to tremble, when Bruce landed. Diana sobbingly told him.

"Flash. Flash is dead. He is gone."

Bruce, cold as ever, said nothing. He walked up to the rest of us on the national capital lawn. He was half holding up a devastated Wonder Woman. He said nothing for a while. I saw him look from the direction he had come from in Russia and over to the White House. I, now, can only surmise that he was thinking about how he essentially had sent Flash to his death.

He squatted down near Superman.

"What do you want to do?" he asked Clark.

Superman finally removed his fists from the cratered seismic fissure he had created along the length of the great esplanade. He drew his finger in the up-turned dirt, like a Kansas farm boy communing with the soil, while in deep contemplation.

"I want to do what you always said I should do. I want to do what needs to be done."

"Are you sure?" For the first time in my life I thought I heard uncertainty in Batman's voice. "No more half measures? You want to be for real this time?"

Superman, quickly lifted his gaze, and gave Bruce such a look. A look that bespoke a man that had never been so sure of anything in his life…and all questions were there-in answered.

"Fine." Batman extended a hand and helped Clark to his feet. Clark took the hand and stood, but the gestures were more of a hand-shake for them. A silent acknowledgement…

Clark abruptly walked over to me and John. I could see that there had been tears in his eyes, but with an self-conscious swipe of his hand across his face he wiped that part of himself away for good.

"John," he said to the ex-Marine. "I need you and Shayera. You two will have to take out the White House grounds Marine security detachment. They are highly armed and of course will remain loyal to the presidency to the end. Can you do that?"…he looked pointedly at John, testing the waters, but it was not necessary.

"Yes. I will take care of it," John said with a nod. I knew he meant it. _Semper Fidelis _- Always Faithful_, _the Marine Corps motto goes. But, John was beyond all that now.

Clark turned to J'onn.

"You will have to phase through and deactivate the White House weapons defense system. It has a Kryptonite force field emitter now. I can not attack until it is down."

"It will be done, Superman," J'onn agreed and also nodded.

"Diana, Bruce…you two just have to stop the Secret Service…"

"What about you?" Diana asked.

"Me? I am going in…to stop him." I only suspected what he meant by this. I know now.

"Okay," Batman agreed. "But wait for us."

After a long pause Clark gave Bruce a side glance and said, "Sure."

The last son of Krypton gathered us into a huddle. Clark took a deep sorrowful breath, wiped his bloodshot eyes and then made this declaration:

"This will NEVER…EVER happen again. We will never allow the safety of anyone to be endangered EVER again by ANYONE. In Flash's name. We will make THIS a much better world! We are the Justice Lords of this Earth and Justice WILL BE DONE!"

We all put our hands in.

Clark was never the same again. None of us were.

From there, what happened inside the walls of the White House marked the world debut of the Justice Lords and would forever define us.

Soon after that:

Diana cut her hair. She said it was a symbolic act, reminiscent of the Greek women of antiquity, that showed a loss profoundly felt in the soul. Then, and I don't know exactly why, but John soon followed her and shaved away his crew cut into a more spartan baldness. He may have done it to symbolize his break with his Marine Corps past, but I am not sure. I, myself, streamlined my helmet into a less flashy, more 'Thanagarian' design. I also went into a sleeker, more subdued brown body suit. I felt more detached and hawk-like in that outfit when doing my Justice Lord duties.

Basically, we all agreed to alter our costumes to symbolize our change. We gave up the individuality of our outfits and added common elements, like the armbands that now adorn our uniforms, that show our unity and our pure commitment to total justice. It lets all persons know that they were no longer dealing with the same merciful do-gooders…

…we were the overlords of the planet and nothing would go down unless you dealt with ALL OF US.

We had all changed. And, in some ways, it was for the worse.

But we never turned back from it…we owed that much to Wally.


End file.
